Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the ability to maintain a certain process or state. In the Local Government context it refers to the ability of Councils to continue delivering a level of service.

Financial Management and Sustainability Workshops 2009

A Financial Management and Sustainability Workshop for Mayor and Councillors of Queensland local government was held in Redland on 29 September 2009. The workshop looked at the meaning of sustainability, and what makes Council's sustainable.

The consensus at the workshop was that a local council is sustainable if its infrastructure capital and financial capital are able to be maintained over the long term.

It noted that understanding sustainability is about answering the question - "will the polices of the council lead to the non-current physical asset base of the council and the financial position of the council having long and productive lives and continuing to provide products and services for future generations?"

And that achieving sustainability across all councils is the State's primary focus.

A local government is sustainable when ……

It has long term asset management plans.

It has linked them to its long term financial forecasts.

It can manage the financial implications of asset ownership in the long term, maintaining service levels without unplanned and unreasonable increases in revenue raising.